Zoning Bylaw Working Group - Jan 22nd, 2020

Approval of Meeting Minutes. Charlie suggests several
edits to the Dec 4th minutes: listing the five industrial districts,
changing "most" to "over 90%", changing "200,000" to "up to
200,000", and "high school" to "new high school". Christian
points out a typo: "quickly that" should be "quickly than".

Minutes approved.

Potential ARB Amendments. Erin Zwirko presents a set of
warrant articles that the ARB may bring forward to town meeting.
They're mostly corrections and minor changes.

(a) Affordable Housing Requirements. This article would change the
anti-segmentation clause from two years to three years. It's based on
the permit extension act from the early 2000's. The three-year time
period comes from chapter 40A, section 9.

(b) Apartment Conversion. This article would add a definition of
"Apartment Conversion" to section 2. The text of the definition is
based on wording that appears elsewhere in the bylaw. Ms. Zwirko
believes the new definition is necessary because "apartment
conversion" is one of the uses listed in the ZBL use tales.

Charlie asks if building on top of a garage would be considered an
apartment conversion. Steve believes no, because the definition
requires there to be no exterior alteration to the building.

(c) Administrative Corrections. The correction includes changing
"Board of Selectmen" to "Select Board", changing "August 1975"
to "August 28, 1975" in places where the specific date does not
appear, updating a regulatory citation in the definition for Medical
Marijuana Treatment center, and changing "seven foot three inches"
to "seven feet" in the definition for "gross floor area". The
last correction comes out of last year's change to the definition of
half story.

(d) Gross Floor Area. This amendment will add a section 5.2.33(C),
which states that landscaped and usable open space requirements are
based on the percentage of gross floor area. Our previous bylaw only
mentioned this in a table heading, and that was inadvertently left out
during recodification.

Group members noted that an additional 7'3" to 7' change was necessary
in section 5.3.22(A)(2). Steve suggests citing 5.3.22(A)(2) in the
definitions for "Open Space, Usable" and "Open Space, Landscaped".

(E) Other districts dimensional and density regulation. This article
would add a table of abbreviations to section 5.6.2. The same table
of abbreviations appears in section 5.4.2 and 5.5.2.

(F) Prohibited Uses. This article would add section 5.2.2(C) with the
text "any use not designated with a Y or SP in the Tables of Uses is
prohibited".

Charlie asks if there have been any complaints about glare from solar
panels. Jenny Raitt is not aware of any complaints; none have been
made to DPCD.

The group will have an opportunity to review resident petitions on Feb
5th. RKG will also give a presentation at the Feb 5th meeting, and we
should schedule an additional hour to accommodate everything.

Project Updates. The RSG was scheduled to get a
presentation on residential design guidelines on Jan 29th. That has
to be rescheduled because several members of that group won't be able
to attend. Part of the project will involve creating a process for
design review. Harriman is the consultant for the project.

The Net Zero plan is being overseen by the clean energy future
committee. The clean energy future committee has also been discussing
a natural gas ban, similar to what Brookline has passed. This would
be a change to town bylaws, rather than to the ZBL. The attorney
general is not likely to finish their review of Brookline's bylaw in
time for town meeting.

The Sustainable Transportation Plan Committee will build upon
transportation goals outlined in the master plan. Steve would like
our Industrial district analysis to consider what our transportation
infrastructure is able to support (i.e., businesses may not want to
locate here if we cannot support their transportation needs).

David Watson asks what's going on with the bike share. The town is
considering docked stations, but we'd have to figure out where to
sight them, and the costs involved.

Christian Klein asks if the mobility plan will consider improvements
to the Minuteman Bikeway. Ms. Raitt says that there are ideas being
tossed around, but nothing concrete.

We're starting to work on a Fair housing action plan. This is in
response to a HUD requirement for communities to address impediments
to the creation of housing. We are working on an analysis with an
attorney that specializes in Fair housing. There will be focus groups
and outreach efforts in the spring, likely working with the new
director of diversity and inclusion.

John asks what "Fair Housing" means. Ms. Zwirko says the term comes
from the Fair Housing act.

David asks if the diversity coordinator will provide training on
equity issues. Ms. Raitt says that she will. The select board and
staff will be trained first. Mr. Watson thinks it will be useful for
the town to explore equity issues.